Nick Clegg yesterday killed the controversial ‘snoopers’ charter’ live on local radio.

The Deputy Prime Minister triggered a bitter new Coalition split as he ripped up £400million of Home Office work by saying the plan to allow police and the security services to monitor the public’s emails and internet visits was ‘not going to happen’.

Officials believed they had a commitment from Mr Clegg that the Liberal Democrats would support the legislation being included in the upcoming Queen’s Speech.

Nick Clegg, on a visit to Stockwell Park Estate in London with police today, said he would not back reworked Home Office plans to track data

The Deputy Prime Minister said he had spoken to senior police officers and the security services about why he was opposed to a vast database tracking all online activity

Last month, the Home Office’s top
counter-terrorism official, Charles Farr, said there was
‘cross-governmental approval’ for the plan.

Mr Clegg’s remarks were welcomed by civil liberties groups, which have fought a dogged campaign against the ‘Big Brother’ proposal.

But the dropping of the plans will alarm the security services, police and child protection experts.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has said changing the law was a ‘matter of life and death’.

Supporters claim that, without the new laws, paedophiles, organised criminals and terrorists will escape detection.

There was astonishment in Whitehall that Mr Clegg had chosen the platform of his weekly phone-in on London’s LBC radio station to make such a major announcement.

Mr Clegg was joined on the visit to Brixton by Lib Dem Home Office minister Jeremy Browne (centre)

Mr Clegg, who met local residents on the Stockwell Park Estate, said he wanted to protect people from unnecessary intrusion

The Communications Data Bill was a central plank of the Government’s counter-terrorism strategy, and Home Secretary Theresa May had been determined to see it become law. In recent weeks, the Home Office had offered a string of concessions to Mr Clegg, who was under strong pressure from his own MPs to veto the legislation.

Mrs May accepted every recommendation made by a joint committee of Lords and MPs, set up at Mr Clegg’s request, to water down the original plan, and Home Office ministers and officials were convinced they had Mr Clegg’s backing.

But on Wednesday – only a few hours before Mr Clegg went on the radio – the Prime Minister was told he was pulling the plug on the negotiations.

Officials say it is the second time Mr Clegg has changed his position on supporting the Bill.

It came amid Coalition tensions over whether to withdraw temporarily from the European Court of Human Rights to improve the chances of booting out Abu Qatada.

Yesterday, Lib Dem MPs and peers were delighted at the death of plans, which would have led to the storage of details of the public’s email, website visits and use of Skype and social media. Police and security officials would have been able to ask internet companies to provide details of who a person was contacting – but not the content.

Home Secretary Theresa May had hoped to reach a compromise deal so that legislation could be included in the Queen's Speech on May 8

Tim Farron, the president of the Lib Dems, tweeted: ‘We have killed the Snooper Charter – campaigning together we have stopped this. Standing up for civil liberties and freedom of speech.’

Tory backbenchers were also happy. Dominic Raab said: ‘This Orwellian scheme should be buried for good. For the billions it would cost, there are far better ways to strengthen law enforcement without snooping on every law-abiding citizen.’

Mr Clegg broke the news shortly after 9am on his weekly phone-in. He said: ‘The idea was that the Government would pass a law which means there would be a record kept of every website you visit, who you communicate with on social media sites.

‘That is not going to happen. It is certainly not going to happen with Liberal Democrats in Government.’

Mr Clegg said he did not believe the British public would support the hoarding of huge amount of information about individuals’ internet use in a ‘treasure trove of data which you can then dip into if you need to’.

Further work is expected on how new legislation might be introduced to deal with the limited problem faced by the police in matching internet addresses with individual mobile phones or computers.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman would not be drawn on whether legislation in this area would feature in the Queen’s Speech.

Sources close to Mr Clegg said it was ‘rubbish’ to suggest he had supported the Bill. They said the announcement had been made on LBC because he was asked a question on the subject.

What a way to run our national security

Few tears will be shed for the ‘snoopers’ charter’ outside of Whitehall.

From the moment the idea was suggested by Labour, it has been condemned as an Orwellian assault on civil liberties.

Ministers tried desperately to refine the proposals to make them acceptable to a deeply sceptical public.

For example, Theresa May ditched Labour’s idea of storing communications data on a giant central government database – saying it would be left to individual internet service providers to keep the information.

But despite all the forceful efforts by senior police and the Government to sell the idea, the case was never successfully made for having the power to spy on the public’s every internet click and Facebook visit.

However, while millions will welcome the death of the legislation, there is good reason to be alarmed about how the decision was reached.

Last month, the Home Office believed it had a cast-iron guarantee from Nick Clegg that the Bill would be included in the forthcoming Queen’s Speech.

Charles Farr, the Home Office’s most senior counter-terrorism official, stated publicly that the proposal had ‘cross-governmental approval’.

Yet, on Wednesday, Mr Clegg – whose aides insist he never backed the legislation – announced to the Prime Minister that he was blocking the Bill. He then used the platform of his weekly radio show on LBC, of all places, to announce what amounts to a fundamental shift in government policy on national security.

Never mind the fact that local radio is no place to reveal that talks have broken down over how to keep the country safe.

What is most worrying is that the Government is so dysfunctional that its two halves cannot even agree on whether Mr Clegg ever supported the idea in the first place.

Yesterday may have been a good day for civil liberties. But it was another shambles for the pantomime-horse Coalition.